Kudos

Professor Tillman Gerngross was named a 2013 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow for creating “inventions that have made an impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.” Gerngross has cofounded five startups—GlycoFi, Adimab, Arsanis, Avitide, and Alector—focused on translating engineering and medical research into methods for treating disease.

The Society for Risk Analysis gave Professor Mark Borsuk its 2013 Chauncey Starr Distinguished Young Risk Analyst Award in recognition of his work in decision theory, uncertainty analysis, and Bayesian statistics used to help quantify and address risk in areas such as climate change and sustainability.

The Arctic continues to show evidence of a shift to a warmer, greener state, according to Professor Donald Perovich, one of three experts who unveiled the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2013 Arctic Report Card in December. “In summary, I’d say that 2013 was another year in the new normal of reduced Arctic sea ice,” he said. “The long-term warming trend has implications for other components of the Arctic system, including the marine and terrestrial ecosystems.”

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Thayer research scientist Mark Laser and Professor Lee Lynd compared the efficiency of vehicles powered by biofuels or bioelectricity produced from cellulosic biomass, a form of renewable energy. The authors, both experts on converting cellulosic biomass into alternative fuels, say their analysis differs from prior work in that it considers heavy-duty vehicles as well as light-duty vehicles, assumes comparable technological maturity for biofuel- and bioelectricity-powered vehicles and supply chains, and factors in the decline in efficiency that comes with increased range for battery-powered vehicles. Assuming typical driving ranges in the United States today, Laser and Lynd find that light-duty vehicles are similarly efficient whether powered by biofuel or bioelectricity. However, heavy-duty vehicles are more efficient when powered by biofuel than by bioelectricity. According to the authors, the key implication of their study is that it is reasonable to expect overall efficiency to be as high or higher for vehicles powered by biofuels as compared to vehicles powered by bioelectricity.

Engineering major James Mock ’15 has cofounded SquareOne Mail with Dartmouth alums CEO Branko Cerny ’13 and designer Sang Lee ’13. As the lead software developer, Mock is working on an application—now available in beta—that will allow users to configure various categories to sort incoming emails. The San Francisco-based company recently added two more employees, including software engineer Arthur Conner ’91.

The eighth annual Formula Hybrid Competition, which Thayer founded and hosts, will be held April 28 – May 1, 2014 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. This year’s competition has attracted 24 student teams, including one from Turkey, two from Canada, and three from India.